Chapter 1 of The Bishop murder case is here in full — 30 sentences across 6 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter I
Chapter 1 of The Bishop murder case is here in full — 30 sentences across 6 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
The Earth is a Temple where there is going on a Mystery Play, childish and poignant, ridiculous and awful enough in all conscience. —Conrad. Philo Vance John F.-X. Markham District Attorney of New York County. Ernest Heath Sergeant of the Homicide Bureau. Professor Bertrand Dillard A famous physicist.
Chapter 1 of The Bishop murder case is here in full — 30 sentences across 6 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/6 · 5 reading units · Lines 1–5
These definitions explain words found in the current reading and keep every example grounded in its original sentence.
Oxford-style entry order: headword, part of speech, US IPA, concise definition, contextual example, and audio.
a professional person authorized to practice law; conducts lawsuits or gives legal advice
From this reading “Philo Vance John F.-X. Markham District Attorney of New York County.”
an administrative unit of government
From this reading “Ernest Heath Sergeant of the Homicide Bureau.”
indicating a lack of maturity
From this reading “The Earth is a Temple where there is going on a Mystery Play, childish and poignant, ridiculous and awful enough in all conscience.”
English novelist (born in Poland) noted for sea stories and for his narrative technique (1857-1924)
From this reading “—Conrad.”
a low evergreen shrub of the family Ericaceae; has small bell-shaped pink or purple flowers
From this reading “Ernest Heath Sergeant of the Homicide Bureau.”
the killing of a human being by another human being
From this reading “Ernest Heath Sergeant of the Homicide Bureau.”
a scientist trained in physics
From this reading “Professor Bertrand Dillard A famous physicist.”
arousing affect
From this reading “The Earth is a Temple where there is going on a Mystery Play, childish and poignant, ridiculous and awful enough in all conscience.”
English keeps certain words together, and knowing the pair is worth more than knowing each word alone. Every partnership below was counted across our whole published library, and earns its place by appearing far more often than two unrelated words of the same frequency would.
Shown as this reading writes them, with the form the library counts, what kind of pairing it is, and how often it occurs.
an official prosecutor for a judicial district
In this reading “Philo Vance John F.-X. Markham District Attorney of New York County.”
Every word in these five lines is listed here, and every one of them can be played on its own.
Dictionary details are shown only when verified; these are not licensed Oxford entries.
used before a singular noun to mean one of a group, when it is not a particular one
From this reading The Earth is a Temple where there is going on a Mystery Play, childish and poignant, ridiculous and awful enough in all conscience.
(quantifier) used with either mass or count nouns to indicate the whole number or amount of or every one of a class
From this reading The Earth is a Temple where there is going on a Mystery Play, childish and poignant, ridiculous and awful enough in all conscience.
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading The Earth is a Temple where there is going on a Mystery Play, childish and poignant, ridiculous and awful enough in all conscience.
a professional person authorized to practice law; conducts lawsuits or gives legal advice
From this reading Philo Vance John F.-X. Markham District Attorney of New York County.
exceptionally bad or displeasing
From this reading The Earth is a Temple where there is going on a Mystery Play, childish and poignant, ridiculous and awful enough in all conscience.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Professor Bertrand Dillard A famous physicist.
an administrative unit of government
From this reading Ernest Heath Sergeant of the Homicide Bureau.
indicating a lack of maturity
From this reading The Earth is a Temple where there is going on a Mystery Play, childish and poignant, ridiculous and awful enough in all conscience.
English novelist (born in Poland) noted for sea stories and for his narrative technique (1857-1924)
From this reading —Conrad.
motivation deriving logically from ethical or moral principles that govern a person's thoughts and actions
From this reading The Earth is a Temple where there is going on a Mystery Play, childish and poignant, ridiculous and awful enough in all conscience.
(United Kingdom) a region created by territorial division for the purpose of local government
From this reading Philo Vance John F.-X. Markham District Attorney of New York County.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Professor Bertrand Dillard A famous physicist.
a region marked off for administrative or other purposes
From this reading Philo Vance John F.-X. Markham District Attorney of New York County.
the 3rd planet from the sun; the planet we live on
From this reading The Earth is a Temple where there is going on a Mystery Play, childish and poignant, ridiculous and awful enough in all conscience.
an adequate quantity; a quantity that is large enough to achieve a purpose
From this reading The Earth is a Temple where there is going on a Mystery Play, childish and poignant, ridiculous and awful enough in all conscience.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Ernest Heath Sergeant of the Homicide Bureau.
a degree on the Fahrenheit scale of temperature
From this reading Philo Vance John F.-X. Markham District Attorney of New York County.
widely known and esteemed
From this reading Professor Bertrand Dillard A famous physicist.
the act of departing
From this reading The Earth is a Temple where there is going on a Mystery Play, childish and poignant, ridiculous and awful enough in all conscience.
a low evergreen shrub of the family Ericaceae; has small bell-shaped pink or purple flowers
From this reading Ernest Heath Sergeant of the Homicide Bureau.
the killing of a human being by another human being
From this reading Ernest Heath Sergeant of the Homicide Bureau.
inside something, or within a place, period, or state
From this reading The Earth is a Temple where there is going on a Mystery Play, childish and poignant, ridiculous and awful enough in all conscience.
the form of “be” used with he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading The Earth is a Temple where there is going on a Mystery Play, childish and poignant, ridiculous and awful enough in all conscience.
a room or building equipped with one or more toilets
From this reading Philo Vance John F.-X. Markham District Attorney of New York County.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Philo Vance John F.-X. Markham District Attorney of New York County.
something that baffles understanding and cannot be explained
From this reading The Earth is a Temple where there is going on a Mystery Play, childish and poignant, ridiculous and awful enough in all conscience.
not of long duration; having just (or relatively recently) come into being or been made or acquired or discovered
From this reading Philo Vance John F.-X. Markham District Attorney of New York County.
belonging to, or connected with, somebody or something
From this reading Philo Vance John F.-X. Markham District Attorney of New York County.
touching and supported by a surface
From this reading The Earth is a Temple where there is going on a Mystery Play, childish and poignant, ridiculous and awful enough in all conscience.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Philo Vance John F.-X. Markham District Attorney of New York County.
a scientist trained in physics
From this reading Professor Bertrand Dillard A famous physicist.
participate in games or sport
From this reading The Earth is a Temple where there is going on a Mystery Play, childish and poignant, ridiculous and awful enough in all conscience.
arousing affect
From this reading The Earth is a Temple where there is going on a Mystery Play, childish and poignant, ridiculous and awful enough in all conscience.
someone who is a member of the faculty at a college or university
From this reading Professor Bertrand Dillard A famous physicist.
inspiring scornful pity
From this reading The Earth is a Temple where there is going on a Mystery Play, childish and poignant, ridiculous and awful enough in all conscience.
any of several noncommissioned officer ranks in the Army or Air Force or Marines ranking above a corporal
From this reading Ernest Heath Sergeant of the Homicide Bureau.
place of worship consisting of an edifice for the worship of a deity
From this reading The Earth is a Temple where there is going on a Mystery Play, childish and poignant, ridiculous and awful enough in all conscience.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading The Earth is a Temple where there is going on a Mystery Play, childish and poignant, ridiculous and awful enough in all conscience.
in or at that place or location
From this reading The Earth is a Temple where there is going on a Mystery Play, childish and poignant, ridiculous and awful enough in all conscience.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading Philo Vance John F.-X. Markham District Attorney of New York County.
in or at the place that
From this reading The Earth is a Temple where there is going on a Mystery Play, childish and poignant, ridiculous and awful enough in all conscience.
the cardinal number that is the sum of nine and one; the base of the decimal system
From this reading Philo Vance John F.-X. Markham District Attorney of New York County.
the English royal house (a branch of the Plantagenet line) that reigned from 1461 to 1485; its emblem was a white rose
From this reading Philo Vance John F.-X. Markham District Attorney of New York County.
Chapter 1 of The Bishop murder case by S. S. Van Dine holds 30 sentences, grouped into 6 reading sections of at most 5 sentences. The text is the source edition, unabridged, and the chapter records which sentences cover which part of the work so that nothing is dropped. Every word can be tapped for its pronunciation and dictionary entry.
Chapter 1 holds 30 sentences of The Bishop murder case, unabridged, divided into 6 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 1 of The Bishop murder case by S. S. Van Dine exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 30 sentences, grouped into 6 sections of at most 5 sentences so that a reader can take the chapter in steady, finishable pieces. The chapter also stores a coverage record mapping every one of its sentences to a part of the work, which is how the edition demonstrates that no line was dropped.
Work through the 6 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 6 sections in this chapter is short enough to read once, hear once, and then re-read with the vocabulary in view. Tapping a word plays it alone and opens its dictionary entry with IPA, part of speech and meaning, so the reader is never forced to guess a pronunciation from spelling. Working section by section keeps a long chapter from becoming an undifferentiated wall of text, which is the usual reason a reader abandons a work of this period.
Yes — every sentence and every individual word in chapter 1 can be played aloud in United States English.
Audio covers the whole chapter: any sentence can be played, and any single word within it can be played on its own. The voice uses United States English. For a work of this period that matters, because spelling is an unreliable guide to pronunciation for vocabulary that has fallen out of daily use, and a learner who guesses wrong tends to keep the error. Hearing the word in its own sentence, and then alone, settles it.
Common questions about reading The Bishop murder case by S. S. Van Dine on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 7919 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #75157 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #75157, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 600 minutes of reading across 1584 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through The Bishop murder case section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 27 chapters of The Bishop murder case to begin.
Each section holds 5 sentences; read it once through.
Play the section aloud, then tap any unfamiliar word for its entry.
Words and structures a reader meets early in The Bishop murder case, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
